Sunrise
by Desha
Summary: Reno's life in the slums, from his point of view.
1. So fair and foul a day

Sunrise  
Part 1: So foul and fair a day  
by Desha  
  
Note: Big surprise here, it's about Reno... sort of a combination POV/rant with a plot (I hope), starting with his early childhood and ending whenever it ends. LOL! Please review!  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
It never rained in the slums when I was a kid. 'Course there was never any sunlight either. It was just a filthy light that filtered down from the mako lamps Shin-Ra Inc. was so gracious as to provide us with. It gave the whole place a certain feel of rot... or maybe it was the crap that washed down from the Plate that did that. Like I said, it never rained... we just got the occasional flood of runoff spewing out of the pipes from up above. That how we knew when it was raining. It was raining the day mom died.  
  
I remember the streets in Sector 2 smelled worse than usual that day. Must've been a real downpour, 'cause the gutters looked more like rivers running between the houses and businesses. I was having the time of my life, of course.  
  
I think I was five. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was five... almost six. Mom sent me out to play. She had one of her... guests. I know most people'd look down on someone like my mom. I can think of a few dozen names that would've suited her profession. Heard a lot of 'em from her "guests" as they were leaving. Now me, I gotta say I respect her. Hell, she did the best she could, and she did it for me. Gotta be grateful for that. She really did do the very best she could, but in the end I guess it was just too much. Too hard.  
  
I don't really know how we ended up down there in Shin-Ra's garbage pit. Mom used to tell me how she used to live up top and watch the sunrise from her window. I don't think she realized I didn't even know what a sunrise was until I was ten. And by then she was gone.  
  
I was out in the street, jumping over the streams of runoff that flowed out of the pipes. There were other kids... all ages really, but mostly older than me. It was our own personal waterpark. We didn't pay any attention to the muck and slime and the drowned rats and all the other crap that was flowing along with it. It was our river. I came home soaked and filthy. I was probably cleaner than usual, to be honest.  
  
Sector 2 was the worst of the slums. It was where the perverts and monsters and other undesirables went when they were run out of the other sectors. If a kid wasn't careful, they just disappeared one day. Most of us learned to be careful real quick. The ones who didn't were never talked about again.  
  
Mom was out when I got home. So I did what I always did. Sat alone in the living room - or what we called the living room... There were only two rooms in the place. I watched the piece of shit TV we dug out of a trash heap until the reception got so bad that I finally gave up. The TV signals down in the slums are lousy at best. Can't pick up anything when they've got all the reactors going at once.  
  
Mom came home a little while later. I think I knew right then that she was dead. Just a body walking around. Her eyes looked dead, like the eyes on the rats that floated down the gutters. She went into the bedroom, and when she didn't come back out, I went to check on her.  
  
Mom was really beautiful. You just had to look past what life in the slums had done to her. Bright red hair, like mine... Green eyes, like mine... She could have looked like a princess if it weren't for the cheap make-up she coated her face with and the always-tired expression she wore. But she was never more beautiful than when I saw her then. Yeah, I guess that sounds pretty sick... A little kid sees his mom cut her own wrists and lay there bleeding to death, and he thinks she's never looked more beautiful. Well, you're right. That is pretty damn sick. But that's how I felt. She looked... I dunno, free I guess. She told me she was sorry, and that she loved me. Funny kind of love, leaving a five year old to fend for himself in the slums. Can't say I blame her though. She'd just had enough.  
  
That's probably when I started crying.   
  
A few days went by, and eventually the old bag next door came over to check on us. She never could mind her own business. They took mom away, and dragged me off to a youth sanctuary. I didn't stay there long. Just long enough to store up some food, grab some relatively new clothes, and pick a few pockets. Yeah, even at five I was pretty good when it came to lifting wallets.  
  
After that, I was on my own for the most part. For awhile at least. They looked for me for maybe a day after I ran off, but I was just one kid and they had fifty or so to deal with. One less kid was one less kid they had to keep an eye on. I spent my sixth birthday in an alley, hiding from Shin-Ra's toy soldiers. They came down every once in awhile to rough up the worst of the trash that lived in the slums... keep 'em in line. Ya ask me, it just pissed 'em off more than they already were, and or course they took it out on us street rats. But those assholes were the least of my worries. I'd swiped one of those soldiers' guns, and lucky me he turned around at the worst possible time.  
  
I may have been small, but I was quick... and I knew those streets a hell of a lot better than Shin-Ra's token police force... so I got to keep my prize. Impressed the hell out of my friends, too. Yeah, I had friends... You gotta have friends. They come in handy when you need someone to cover your ass.  
  
So there I was... sweet little six year old me out in the middle of the worst of the slums, flashing a gun that only had three bullets in it, and thinking I was invincible. Alright, so I was an idiot.  
  
*~end part one~*  



	2. All Night, All Day

Sunrise  
Part 2: All Night, All Day  
by Desha  
  
Note: Still reading this? Oh good! Now, since I've pretty much made a mess of Reno's life, I think it's time to through in a bad guy or two, yes? :)  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Yep, I was an idiot alright. A complete and total idiot. I mean, I was dumb even for a six year old. I never did know when to keep my mouth shut back then... Still have a bad habit of mouthing off when I shouldn't, but that's not the point.  
  
The point is, I did something incredibly stupid.  
  
Let's see, I was probably seven or eight at the time. I still had my gun... the bullets were long gone, though, and a kid can't exactly walk into a shop in the slums and buy ammo... That's just begging to be jumped on the street. And forget about stealing it. Stuff like that's hard to come by, and the people who do have it don't let it out of their sight.  
  
But the nice thing about a gun is that you can never be sure if it's loaded or not. And I got damn good at bluffing my way out of trouble. What I didn't realize was that it was only a matter of time before someone called my bluff. And then... well, I'll get to that in a minute.  
  
I usually ran around with three kids about my age. First off, there was Jazep... That guy was the definition of the word fat. Never did figure out how he managed to gain so much weight while the rest of us looked like a pack of starved dogs. But we didn't complain, 'cause it was his size that kept certain people from bothering us. He was strong too, but slow as hell. Then there was Kume. He was my best pal... 'til he ditched me and left me bleeding in an alley. Yeah, I'll get to that part eventually...  
  
Kume could kick ass like nobody's business. He was a couple of years older than me, or at least he looked like he was. Problem was he usually only looked out for number one. The other one in our little group was Angel. She never told me her real name. Hell, for all I know, her parents might have really named her that out of some last ditch effort to find some hope in the slums. Personally, I think she just made it up. Her mom was dead, but her dad was still around. I'm not even gonna go into what went on in her house... Still makes me sick to think about it. But she never really ran away. She'd go off with us for awhile, but she always went back.  
  
Me? Well, I guess if we're assigning titles, I was the show-off of the group. I was the one who'd always take a bet if the prize was good enough, and I was usually the winner. Which meant I was the rich kid. Hey, I told you before I was an idiot... At the time fourteen gil seemed like a fortune.  
  
  
But anyway... I did something stupid. I trusted my friends to back me up.  
  
The part of Sector 2 I lived in was unofficially the territory of a man named Yolin... mostly because he had means to back up his threats. And me being the smart little kid I was - note the heavy sarcasm in there - I tried to bluff my way out of a very bad situation. Let's just say I lost a bet I never had a chance of winning and leave it at that. The result is what's important here.  
  
By the time Yolin's brute squad was done with me, I don't think I had an inch of skin that wasn't black, blue, or purple. And I had a nice little stab wound or five to go with the bruises. Oh, and the scars... Can't forget about those. They gave me those just so that on the off-chance I actually survived, I'd have something to remember them by.  
  
And where were Jazep, Kume, and Angel, you ask? Well, Kume high-tailed it out of there the second the knives came out. Jazep stuck around long enough to take a couple hits himself... though I don't think that was his choice. He just couldn't run fast enough to keep up with Kume. Angel hid - something she was very good at - until Yolin's guys left.  
  
She was the only one who stuck around to see if I was still alive. I'll give her that much credit. Didn't do much to help though, unless going through my pockets is considered helping. It didn't really surprise me, though. I probably looked like I'd bite it at any second.  
  
The only one of them I ever saw after that was Angel. But that came much later.  
  
Needless to say, I lived through that attack, and that I owe entirely to the guy everyone knew as the preacher-man.  
  
*~end part two~*  



	3. Mine and Thine

Sunrise  
Part 3: Mine and Thine  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
The preacher-man was not a preacher. I'm sure that comes as a huge shock to you. Oh look... There's that sarcasm again. The preacher-man was the last person I ever wanted to get involved with, but as it turned out, I didn't have much of a choice.  
  
I mean, it's not like I could run away from the members of his "flock" when they found me, beaten all to hell and lying in that alley. I couldn't even see straight. So in the true spirit of weirdos and fanatics everywhere, they took me to their leader.  
  
Let me tell ya, this guy was nuts. If it weren't for that fact that reception down there was so crappy, I'd have said he'd seen one too many of those television evangelist shows. 'Cept it wasn't exactly salvation this guy was preaching. He thought he was a god or a demi-god or something... I never really figured it out for sure. And he thought he should be worshipped. His flock was made up of people like me. Kids who didn't have anywhere to go, or who couldn't get away when his angels of grace, as he termed them, came calling.  
  
He was the kind of guy you steered clear of on the street. Only came out at night, and he was always with some of his angels. Remember I told you that the kids who didn't learn to be careful tended to disappear? Well guess who a lot of them ended up with...  
  
In addition to being a broker for cheap labor, a trainer of thieves, and an all around pervert, he was also really difficult to run away from... and it wasn't for lack of trying on my part.  
  
As soon as I'd healed up enough that I could get around on my own two feet, I tried to walk out on him. That didn't go over too well. Seemed the preacher-man thought I had to be punished for being so ungrateful. This was where I found out just how big a pervert the guy was. Kinky doesn't even begin to describe it, believe me.  
  
After that I figured I'd stick around for awhile and wait for a better opportunity to disappear... maybe head over to Sector 7. So I spent my days worshipping my new master, and my nights doing whatever I was told to do - most of which I'd rather forget. Still, some of it I enjoyed... like the trips to the Plate. I was ten the first time I was sent up to the Plate. He had a contact up there who kept him supplied with the various merchandise he sold in the slums, while the preacher-man himself supplied him with... well, us.  
  
Like most of the preacher-man's angels, I didn't get to see much of the Plate. Most of the stuff I did was at night, and involved keeping to the shadows. Illegal deliveries, robberies, destruction of property… murder... whatever the guy needed done. Basically, we were expendable. If we got caught, it was no loss to anyone, and if we tried to rat him out... well, who's gonna take the word of a delinquent from the slums over that of an upstanding businessman?  
  
But so long as could avoid getting caught, it was actually kinda fun. The one thing I really remember though, was the first time I saw a sunrise. I'd been out most of the night with a few of the others sent up from Sector 2, and we were due to head back. But we stopped at the edge of the Plate before we went back down into that pit, and watched the sun come up. It was just like mom had described. I didn't really understand what was so great about it at the time. Yeah, sure it was pretty... if you liked that sort of thing... calming, even. But it happened everyday, right?  
  
Still, I guess that kinda sticks in my mind 'cause it made me think of her. It was the first time I'd really thought about mom in a long time, and I started to miss her all over again.  
  
There wasn't much variation in my life for the next few years. It was basically "do what you're told, and you won't get in trouble". By the time I was fourteen I'd pretty much established a nice little rhythm. No one messed with me so long as I didn't make waves. I might have looked scrawny, but like they say, appearances can be deceiving. And then along came the Turks.  
  
Nah... We're not up to the part where I get recruited, and get the hell out of the slums yet. Heh... I wish. Would've made my life a lot easier, that's for damn sure.  
  
Yeah, yeah... I know. You want to know what the Turks had to do with this part of my life. I'm getting there...  
  
Turns out, the preacher-man was none too popular with El Presidente. And who does the president of Shin-Ra, Inc. call when he needs a pest exterminated? Why the Turks, of course. In this case, Tseng himself. I guess it was supposed to be a quick assassination. But it turned into a free-for-all when the new recruit old Tsengy was working with slipped up and gave the two of them away.  
  
So what do I do? I jump right in, trying to keep them away from the preacher-man. Hey, what can I say? It was a pretty cushy life, all things considered. Better than starving on the streets, anyway.  
  
So there's Tseng, his usual cool and collected self, taking aim... and there's the new recruit getting his ass kicked by twenty or thirty of us angels... so I figure I better do something about this. Now the smart thing to do would have been to get the fuck out of there. I mean, these guys were Turks! But the level of relative comfort I was used to overruled my common sense, and I decided to take on Tseng. Yeah... right.  
  
It happened amazingly fast. One second I was running toward the guy, ready to tackle him, and the next I was on my back ten feet away with my arm bent in a direction no arm should ever be bent in. From the cries of pain, I was pretty sure I wasn't the only one in that position. The next thing I heard was a single gunshot, and by the time I'd recovered enough to figure out what was happening, Tseng was gone and the preacher-man was dead. The other Turk was dead, too... and not a pretty sight to see, either.  
  
When it was over, the preacher-man's angels went our separate ways, and after awhile I met up with a different Angel.  
  
*~end part 3~*  



	4. Lost Souls

Sunrise  
Part 4: Lost Souls  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
It wasn't long before I decided to get out of Sector 2 altogether. Funny thing is, I actually missed it when I finally left. It was the only home I'd ever known, after all. But Sector 7 was a big step up from that hellhole, and with the preacher-man gone I needed some other means of supporting myself. And believe it or not, there are a few things even I wouldn't do for money. So off I went.  
  
I ended up in Wall Market.  
  
Now that was the life. Between the bar and the Honey Bee Inn, I was having the time of my life. Gil was easy to come by... just lift a little off one of the visitors from the Plate. Yeah, they deny it, but the some of the people who live up top just love Wall Market. And those kinds of people always carried cash and plenty of it.  
  
So I spent most days sitting in the bar, drinking whatever swill they were selling at the moment, picking fights, getting thrown out, and coming back once I'd sobered up. Nights - big surprise - were spent at the Honey Bee Inn. And guess who I found there the first time I walked through those doors...  
  
She was dressed up in one of those cheesy little bee outfits they make the girls wear. Never much cared for those costumes, but I'll admit, they do give a guy a nice view of the merchandise.   
  
I almost didn't recognize her, but she knew me right away. 'Course I guess I do kinda stand out a little. Wasn't expecting to run into her again. I never thought she'd actually get out of her dad's house. But there was Angel in the Honey Bee Inn, all dressed up waiting for the next guy to walk in. And wouldn't ya know it, I was the next guy…  
  
So long story short, it got to the point where I became one of her regular customers. Found out she'd killed her dad when he came after her with a knife and then run off to Wall Market. Ya ask me, he had it coming. She shoulda done it a long time ago. Kume joined up with Shin-Ra's army, and Angel said she'd only seen him once since then. And apparently Jazep was a drugged up junkie somewhere in Sector 7. I never bothered to find him.  
  
Angel and me, I guess you could say we were friends. I mean real friends... I more or less trusted her, and she more or less trusted me. The whole incident with Yolin's goons we put behind us after awhile. I think she was genuinely sorry for just leaving me there like that. I doubt I'd have gotten such remorse from Kume...  
  
Somehow I ended up being Angel's bodyguard... Sort of. Anyone who roughed her up, I tracked 'em down and beat the crap out of 'em. It was a nice little arrangement. I scared off most of the assholes, and she waved her usual fee when I showed up at the Honey Bee. A few of the other girls were... appreciative... as well. Life was good.  
  
There were downsides, of course. Don Corneo being one of them. That fat slob had a bigger ego than even the preacher-man. And he was the one guy in town I couldn't smack around for getting a little rough with the ladies... not if I wanted my skin to remain intact, anyway. He had a hand in everything that went on in Wall Market, and even if he was a spineless piece of gutter slime, the guys he had watching his fat ass weren't exactly pushovers.  
  
Anyways, by the time I was nineteen, I was pretty well settled in Wall Market. For once I had almost everything I thought I wanted... and for what I didn't have, the bar was a reliable substitute.  
  
But Life's funny, ya know? Just went you think you've got it all pretty much the way you want it, something new comes along and changes everything.  
  
*~end part four~*  



	5. Offers

Sunrise  
Part 5: Offers  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
In this case, that "something new" was actually a someone... and he wasn't really new to me either.  
  
Yeah, you guessed it. It was Tseng again. It was plain old dumb luck that I ran into the guy again. Right place at the right time. See, a lot of people come to Wall Market, and most of them are only there for one of two reasons. Business or pleasure. Tseng was there on business. The guy he was sent after was there for the pleasure.  
  
Now here's where that dumb luck comes in.  
  
Wouldn't ya know it... the son of a bitch Tseng was looking for turned out to be one of Angel's regulars. And not one of her favorites. His name was Ruto, I think. But let's cut to the chase. He left Angel in pretty bad shape, 'cause she wouldn't see him... and who can blame her? She was four months or so pregnant at the time. Thanks to him, she lost the baby.  
  
Now don't go accusing me of gettin' all noble or some shit like that. I went after the guy 'cause that's what I'd been doing since I got to Wall Market. It was kinda like my job. Ok, and so maybe I was more than a little ticked, too.  
  
I caught up with Ruto in a little dead end area near Corneo's place, and I just laid into him with my fists before he even turned around. He was the typical asshole... good at beating up on women, but when it came to someone his own size, he was pretty much screwed. I had him on the ground pretty soon. Got in a few good, hard kicks to the ribs before I realized someone was watching.  
  
I turned around, and there was Tseng. Just standing there in that blue suit of his, off to the side, watching like it was something he saw everyday. Come to think of it, it probably *was* something he saw everyday. So there's the luck... now for the dumb part. Heh... Dumb luck. Get it? Yeah, ok... anyway...  
  
I turned my back on Ruto to get a good look at this Turk that had suddenly shown up. I figured the guy was down for the count, and I'd seen what a Turk could do first hand. My first thought was something along the lines of 'What the hell's the deal with that dot thing?'... Then my brain started functioning again and a realized that I was probably in a lot of trouble right then.  
  
But Tseng looked almost amused. Well, as amused as the guy ever looks, anyway. He said something about me doing his job for him, and how he might be able to use someone like me. Told me he'd been keeping an eye on me off and on ever since Sector 2. Guess I impressed him, trying to jump him like I did. Or something.  
  
Now keep in mind, my back was to Ruto during all this, so I didn't notice that while I was talking with the Turk, he was reaching into his jacket. Now I knew better than to let someone like that out of my sight, but I was distracted, alright?  
  
I didn't notice until an arm wrapped around my legs and pulled me down. I hit the ground hard, and before I could get up, I could feel the barrel of a gun pressed against my back, while Ruto held me in front of him. Tseng had his own gun out before I'd even fully figured out what had happened... and it kinda worried me that he was aiming at me.  
  
Ruto said he could have me back in one piece if he let me go. Tseng said no. And I have no doubt in my mind that Tseng would have shot right through me to get at Ruto if he'd had to. Lucky me, I was quite a bit smaller that Ruto, so Tseng had his choice of targets.  
  
He put a bullet right between Ruto's eyes. I mean dead center... I felt the bullet graze my ear just before Ruto keeled over. He did it on purpose, too. I could see it in his eyes. I suppose that was Tseng's way of saying that I'd made a serious mistake. I think I half expected him to kill me, too, then.  
  
Instead, he told me he still thought I could be of some use to him. And that's how I got out of the slums for good.  
  
*~end part five~*  



	6. Sunrise Over Midgar

Sunrise  
Part 6: Sunrise over Midgar  
by Desha  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
So Tseng - who'd finally introduced himself to me by now - took me up to the Plate. And once I was there, I belonged to him. The training was grueling... Hell of a lot more work than I was used to, but I guess it paid off in the end.  
  
Target practice, hand to hand combat, weaponry... you name it, Tseng crammed it into my head. And not just me. There was another new recruit there, too. He'd been there several months before I showed up. Rude and I hit it off right away. I talked, he listened. I drank, he drank. I got drunk off my ass trying to forget all the things I'd lived through... he dragged my ass home. In short, I trusted him, he trusted me. Not many people I can say that about.  
  
And the next thing I knew, I was a Turk.  
  
Yeah, ok... maybe there was a little more to it than that. But the rest of it's kind of a trade secret.   
  
I'm really not sure if I should thank Tseng for what he did for me, or shoot him for it. The life of a Turk sometimes isn't any easier than life in the slums... But I think, given the choice, I wouldn't change anything right now. There are definite advantages to this blue suit. Just ask Angel... She lives in Kalm now. I was more than willing to help get her out of Wall Market. She's invited me to her wedding next month.  
  
Another plus, I can look out the window of my apartment every morning and watch the sun rise over Midgar. Mom would've loved the one this morning. I guess I finally figured out why she clung to that image down in Sector 2. Sunrise is sort of a new beginning, and that's what she wanted more than anything.  
  
Yeah, I know... I'm probably the last person you'd expect to hear trying to be all deep and philosophical and shit... Don't let it get around, ok?  
  
*~fin~*  
  
Note: Well, there you have it. Now that you've read it, write a review!  



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